Piedigrotta small Church
Pizzo Calabro: this Church's history swings between myth and reality. The former tells that, around the first half of 1600, a ship coming from Naples and carrying a canvas depicting the Madonna di Piedigrotta was stricken by a violent storm. The captain and his crew started praying to the canvas situated in his cabin. During the terrible cloudburst the ship crashed against a cliff, and the load was lost. Fortunately, the whole crew, including the captain, managed to swim and reach the shore. Also the canvas and the ship's bell dating back to 1632 arrived at the same point of the coast. The bay where the men rushed to safety was not frequented by fishermen, as it is often told, but by the quarry workers who went there to cut the blocks of sedimentary rock, which is wrongly called "tuff", used in the construction industry. The workers, along with the sailors, took the canvas of the Madonna and put it within an inlet of the rock to protect it from possible storm surges. This attempt failed: other two storm surges occurred and took the canvas away, but it always went back to the point where it was found the first time. So the workers considered this fact as the will of the Madonna, and in front of the place where the canvas was found they enlarged a preexisting cave to turn it into a church where the canvas was placed.
For information, visits and in-depth information: www.cooperativakairos.net - Cooperativa Kairos, Via Nazionale, snc - 89812 Pizzo (VV) Ph. +39 0963 532523 - +39 392 0580111
